Suspect in knife attack at HISD bus stop arrested at school

A 14-year-old Westside High School student was slashed at this corner while waiting for the bus on Thursday (Cody Duty / Houston Chronicle).

A student was on his way here, Westside High School, when he was attacked at the corner of Waldemar and Bentworth, about three miles away. (Cody Duty / Houston Chronicle)

The 14-year-old was slashed at this corner. He was trying to help a girl when a man tried to abduct her. (Cody Duty / Houston Chronicle)

HISD police arrested a man accused of attempting to abduct a student at a bus stop and slashing another with a knife Thursday morning.

The district said Cecil Keith McClenan Jr., 52, turned himself in this afternoon at Westside High School, about 3 miles from where the attack happened at about 6:30 a.m.

McClenan is charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon in the slashing of a 14-year-old boy who intervened in an attempted abduction near the corner of Waldemar and Bentworth.

McClenan is a relative of the student he is accused of trying to abduct, HISD said.

HISD spokesman Jason Spencer said that while students were gathered a bus stop, an adult male in a mask approached a female student, a senior at Westside, and attempted to take her from the bus stop by force. It is believed he used a weapon in the attempted abduction.

The female resisted the man and the rest of the students intervened to save her from the masked man.

During the incident, a 14-year-old freshman at Westside suffered a cut to his arm.

The man fled the scene when the school bus arrived at the stop.

The bus driver followed protocol and EMS and police were called to the bus stop.

The cut on the freshman did not require surgery, but he did receive stitches from a local hospital and he was released.

Spencer said that this male student did a very brave thing.

Westside parents have been notified of what happened and HISD has said that there will be an added police presence at the bus stop for the foreseeable future.